Help Nancy Sanchez Kickstart Her Debut Album!

Orange County singer-songwriter raises funds for "Ruby in L.A." record

Fullerton-based singer-songwriter Nancy Sanchez is readying her first full-length album "Ruby in L.A." for 2012 and is turning to supporters to help make it all happen. The musician launched a Kickstarter campaign to help complete funding for the project in progress.

Sanchez hopes to raise $15,000 by February 17 and is offering numerous thank you gifts from an early digital download of the album at the lowest pledge level to the opportunity to sing on the record alongside her at the highest. The money will go to everything from booking studio time, mixing, mastering, artwork, backup vocalists and sought out musical collaborations. "I want to bring in Tony Guerrero and some horn players," Sanchez says of her preliminary plans.

Whereas the singer's 2010 seven-song self-titled EP focused principally on jazz and helped garner two OCMA nominations, including the award for 'Best Latin,' "Ruby in L.A." will display a broader range of her musical talents. "I want to blend different elements," she says, "I don't always write jazz and I want to do more of a crossover with this recording." With Evan Stone and David J. Carpenter on board as co-producers, the album will explore jazzy influences, pop sensibilities, and even a few songs en Espa??ol. For the die-hard Nancy Sanchez fans, this is the album that will finally feature "The Hippo Song," a favorite of her sets.

In the accompanying video for the Kickstarter page, a sneak-listen of the title track can be heard as the music bed. It displays the maturation of her sound as well as penchant for lighthearted, catchy lyrics. Thinking she was 'Nancy in Fullerton' though, all this "Ruby in L.A." talk begged for further explanation.

"I used to be in a band called Ruby Red," she says of her musical past, "And my name was Ruby in that band." Without divulging too much into detail, she reminisced about how a musician friend of hers developed a crush that didn't pan out and when their paths diverged he wrote a song called "Ruby" that he would perform in Los Angeles. "At a certain point, he stopped playing it," Sanchez adds, "I just got sad and wrote my own song."

Another opportunity for musical catharsis exists for Ruby in L.A. The album comes at an important juncture for the local musician on the rise. "I think it's cool thing to have Kickstarter on the artist side," she says. "If we do meet the goal, I'm just going to be completely amazed and happy."